“The taste of a liar!” Japanese teacher arrested for licking student’s ear

The teacher declared that he could tell if students were lying if he licked their ears, just like a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure character.

Have you ever worked with teenagers? You might find that they’re uncannily good at obfuscating the truth. When I was a teenager I would lie to my teachers about everything, big or small, and for a whole host of reasons.

Teruki Suira, a 32-year-old teacher, has a peculiar method to deal with teenage duplicity. Working at the Shinsei cram school in Takarazuka, Hyogo prefecture, he allegedly told a male student that, “I can check if you’re lying by licking your ear.” He then held the 14-year-old student by both shoulders and licked the boy’s right ear.

According to the report submitted by both the student and his mother in early September, this incident took place around 4:50 p.m. on August 14 in the break period between classes. Suira was arrested on November 1 by Takarazuka police officers, and gave this puzzling statement:

“It is true that I licked him, but I did it as a way of guiding him along the right path.”

People were quick to point out that the only people who benefit from saliva-based guidance like this are the stylish flexing characters of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, as there is a very famous scene where Bruno Bucciarati doubts protagonist Giorno Giovanna’s claim that he didn’t meet with another character.

As the teacher has already conceded to actually licking the student in question, it’s little surprise it culminated in his arrest. While many were amused by the obvious JoJo reference in the teacher’s peculiar stunt, others were understandably concerned for the welfare of the student: it’s bad enough having to spend hours at cram school without your otaku teacher sticking their tongue in your face.